21/22 Kings Seasons In Review – Cal Petersen

Good Morning, Insiders!

We started off the goaltenders with a look at Jonathan Quick’s season on Wednesday and today we move into Cal Petersen’s overview. Petersen and Quick combined for 81 of the 82 starts in net this season and despite injuries dismantling nearly the entire roster at various points in the season, it cost the netminders only one start, due to Petersen’s presence in COVID Protocol in December.

Cal Petersen
NHL Statline – 37 games played, 2177 minutes played, 20-14-2 record, 2.89 goals against average, .895 save percentage, .905 even-strength save percentage, 3 shutouts
NHL Playoff Statline – 1 game played, 32 minutes played, 0-0 record, 7.45 goals against average, .800 save percentage, .800 even-strength save percentage, 0 shutouts

Cal Petersen entered the 2021-22 season with high expectations. He earned a three-year contract extension prior to the season, one that is set to kick in with the start of the 2022-23 season. He had the stronger 2020-21 season among Kings netminders and earned the nod on opening night in Los Angeles, his first career opening-night start. The stage was set and in some areas, Petersen looked every bit the goaltender of the future in Los Angeles. Others were less consistent, as he ceded the net to Jonathan Quick down the stretch, as the veteran earned a lion’s share of the minutes in the playoff push.

“I think it was a good season, there were times in which [Petersen] did take control of the team,” General Manager Rob Blake said after the season. “It was clear that Jonathan Quick was the starter coming into the playoffs and is as competitive as anybody on our team. I like the look of our goaltender situation because they are competing with each other to see who goes, but like I said, when we came down that stretch, Jonathan proved that’s what he does in those big moments and he continued that in the playoffs.”

Trending Up – In many ways, Cal Petersen’s splits were a perfect embodiment of how the LA Kings won games this season.

Petersen earned 20 wins during the 2021-22 campaign and in those games he got the second-least “run support” of any goaltender around the league at 3.52, meaning goals his team scored in Kings wins. In those 20 wins, Petersen posted the league’s ninth-best goals-against average amongst netminders with at least 15 wins (1.69). Close, low-scoring games were the ones that Petersen won this season, as the LA Kings did as a team.

Petersen was also among the NHL’s best in high-danger save percentage. Only three goaltenders in the NHL ranked higher amongst those with at least 35 games played and two of them – Jacob Markstrom and Igor Shesterkin – were nominated for the Vezina Trophy. One was nominated for the Hart Trophy. Only Shesterkin ranked higher in goals saved above average specifically on high-danger chances.

Petersen’s strongest stretch of the season came during his return from COVID Protocol on January 8 through the end of March, a stretch in which he ranked inside the NHL’s Top 10 in wins and goals-against average. It was the time of the year when he commanded more of the starts, overall, than Quick did, but perhaps also the strongest overall tandem in terms of stringing together wins. In essence, what Blake envisions.

Trending Down – In many ways, Cal Petersen’s splits were also a perfect embodiment of how the LA Kings lost games this season.

Many of Petersen’s defeats were of a more lopsided variety, allowing 4.64 goals per game in a loss this season, the fourth-highest mark in the NHL among those with double-digit defeats. His goal support in those games was also among the top-ten highest in the NHL. There were times this season when Petersen was in net for a few games that got out of control – he allowed five or more goals seven times – whether it was his fault or not. The Kings as a team tended to win games by one goal, but lose by multiple goals, sometimes in larger-scale fashion. That was reflected in Petersen’s totals this season.

There’s also the fact that it was the veteran Quick, rather than Petersen, who started the bulk of the team’s most spotlighted games down the stretch and all seven games in the postseason. While I think that Quick’s play is what deserves the credit, rather than Petersen’s deserving the blame, it would’ve been a terrific stride for Petersen to have earned at least some of those games moving forward to see how he handled the pressure and experience.

Additionally, as noted in Quick’s review, Petersen had one of the NHL’s lowest save percentages while shorthanded, a trait amongst both goaltenders. Penalty killing starts in net, but includes the full unit and as a team, the Kings fell short in that area.

Of Note – Petersen’s workload was one of the most unique in the NHL. Amongst goaltenders with at least 700 minutes played at all strengths, Petersen’s 29.06 shots faced per/60 was the lowest rate in the league, but 32 percent of those shots against were high-danger chances, the league’s third-highest rate. Is that a trending up stat, a trending down stat or a context stat, I’m not sure – Petersen also had the NHL’s shortest average shot distance faced – but the low shot totals overall and the high percentage of quality chances against could at least, in some ways, contribute towards the overall save percentage. It should be noted, though, that Quick also ranked towards the top of the league in that metric, as he did in shot distance, so it’s not necessarily a huge a variable between the Kings tandem.

2022-23 Status – Petersen signed a three-year contract extension in advance of training camp in the fall, tying him to the Kings through the 2024-25 season.

As Blake noted above, management likes the competition the Kings have in net, with Petersen and Quick battling each other for minutes and role. As it stands now, that appears set to continue heading into the 2022-23 season, with both under contract at higher cap hits. The expectation for Petersen will be to continue to battle for his time in the net, with the hopes his play can not only result in more opportunities for himself, but continue to push Quick’s level as well, and vice versa.